EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Stephon Marbury and Kobe
Bryant moved their All-Star duel from the MCI Center to the
Continental Airlines Arena. This time, Bryant emerged the
winner.

Marbury scored a career-high 50 points but missed a potential
tying 3-pointer at the buzzer as Bryant and the Los Angeles
Lakers escaped with a thrilling 113-110 overtime victory over
the resilient New Jersey Nets.

Bryant scored 38 points and snapped a 110-110 tie when he drove
the lane, drew a foul from Jamie Feick and made a layup with 4.8
seconds to play. He sank the ensuing free throw, leaving New
Jersey with a final opportunity to forge a tie.

Marbury, who needed a 3-pointer to establish a franchise record,
received the inbounds pass and pulled up from 30 feet. But his
shot bounded off the rim and into Bryant's hands as the buzzer
sounded.

"He gave us the opportunity to win the game," Nets coach Byron
Scott said of Marbury. "There is nothing more you can ask of
him. It's just the little-bitty things at the end that end up
beating you."

Marbury answered a pair of clutch jumpers by Bryant with two
huge 3-pointers in the final minute of Sunday's All-Star Game in
Washington, lifting the Eastern Conference to a thrilling
111-110 triumph. On Tuesday, the duo again went head-to-head
down the stretch but needed overtime to decide the victor.

"I was just trying to win," said Marbury, who was ill before,
during and after the contest. "It doesn't matter if you're sick
or have a stomachache, you still have to play."

Shaquille O'Neal returned from a six-game absence due to a
strained right arch and had 32 points, 14 rebounds and five
blocks, including one on Marbury in the game's final minute.

"That's what he does for us," Bryant said of O'Neal's defensive
presence. "He's our last line of defense. If somebody slips in
on penetration through the defense, Shaq is there to cancel it
out and it demoralizes the other team."

"There is no way to get into basketball shape, unless you play
basketball," O'Neal said. "We played a pretty good game but we
lost a lead we should not have lost."

Bryant appeared to seal the Nets' fate in regulation when he
answered a pair of free throws from Marbury by driving through
two defenders and scoring on an acrobatic layup to give Los
Angeles a 104-98 lead with 1:04 left.

Undaunted, Marbury dug into his long-range arsenal, connecting
from 25 feet with 51 seconds remaining and turning a turnover by
Tyronn Lue into another 3-pointer with 27 seconds left, forging
a 104-104 tie.

"At the end of regulation, Marbury hit those two big threes in
the last last four possessions to send that thing into
overtime," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "That was a great
effort. Marbury was almost impossible to stop."

Bryant missed an 18-footer on the Lakers' ensuing trip, ensuring
the Nets of their first overtime of the season.

"I was just reading the defense, just seeing what they were
going to do," Bryant said. "I felt like I had a pretty good
look on it but I didn't quite get my footwork planted the way I
wanted to and I just missed the shot."

Marbury scored 13 points during a 16-4 run to close regulation,
becoming the first Net to score 50 points since Ray Williams had
52 on April 17, 1982. Williams and Mike Newlin (1979) share the
team's single-game scoring record.

"Marbury hit a lot of shots," O'Neal said. "If he missed 10 of
those shots, it is a totally different game. We know every team
that we play will be playing above their heads. We were ready
for that. We just let the lead slip away."

Marbury hit 17-of-29 shots, half his eight 3-pointers and
12-of-16 free throws while handing out a season-high 12 assists.
But New Jersey was unable to complete its first four-game
winning streak since last March.

"I can't say anything negative about this team," said Scott, who
has scolded his team in the past. "They played their hearts
out. We've just got to make sure we continue to play hard."

The Lakers kicked off a six-game road trip and have not lost in
New Jersey since November 1993.

Bryant finished 14-of-25 from the floor, grabbed eight boards
and handed out five assists for Los Angeles, which has won four
in a row.

"Stephon is not going to be able to get 50 points every night,"
Van Horn said. "We as a team, collectively, if we come out with
the same effort every night, we can win a lot of games."

Rick Fox scored 13 points and Horace Grant added 12 for the
Lakers, who shot 48 percent (41-of-86) and held a 45-37
rebounding advantage. O'Neal, Grant and Bryant combined to
block nine shots for Los Angeles, while Aaron Williams had the
lone block for New Jersey.

Playing before just their second home sellout crowd of the
season, Marbury and the Nets looked eager to knock off the
defending NBA champions.

Trailing 74-63 late in the third quarter, New Jersey closed the
period with an 8-0 burst, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by
Marbury and Harris.